“When I look back on my mother, I remember someone who was resilient and driven by her principles. She was first and foremost an abstract painter – a pioneer of her time from pioneer stock. She was the only abstract painter among the four hundred participants at the Washington Square art show in 1935 […] I wish she was here to realize the impact on art she has had and her growing reputation today. This book was conceived as a tribute to my mother’s life and a testament to the perseverance of her inner core.” – Emily Mason, excerpted from the Foreword
“In these days of long complication and sudden growth, many will pass unnoticed… many will raise themselves for the time being and vanish again unheard thereafter. Who will be there to stay while the years explode?” – Alice Trumbull Mason, from an undated prose poem
Written by Thomas Micchelli, Meghan Forbes, Christina Weyl, Elisa Wouk Almino, Will Heinrich, and Marilyn R. Brown. The first comprehensive publication exploring the life and art of pioneering American abstract artist Alice Trumbull Mason is perfect for audiences eager to discover unsung yet brilliantly talented women artists. A groundbreaking artist, Alice Trumbull Mason (1904-1971) was one of the earliest painters of the twentieth century to embrace abstract painting in America. Mason’s early paintings have been compared to those of Gorky, Kandinsky, and Miró, and in 1936 she became a founding member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and one of its leaders in the promotion of abstract work by artists such as Josef Albers, Ad Reinhardt, Piet Mondrian, and many others. Mason was a true artist’s artist whose efforts helped lead to the great movements of later twentieth-century art, such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Post-Modernism, and Conceptual Art. Alice Trumbull Mason features essays that illuminate and contextualize the artist’s multifaceted work and personal life through her paintings, prints, poetry, and letters. The book reveals the full life story of a seminal abstractionist, making a sound argument for adding her to the annals of great twentieth-century artists.
ISBN: 978-0-8478-6699-1
